America, What Does God Require of Thee

“AMERICA, What does God Require of thee?”

Deuteronomy 10:12,13

“ ¶ And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, 13) To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?”

Introduction

A) Changing the name

If you would allow me this morning, I would like to change the name “Israel” and change it to America.
I know that in this fifth book of Moses he is talking to Israel here but… why would it not still apply to us today?

B) Deuteronomy knowledge

Deuteronomy comes from two Greek words meaning “the giving of the second law.”
The law had been given to the older generation and they had died off.
Now Moses is rehearsing the law to the Israelites who had come out of the wilderness journey.
They needed to know what their forefather had.

C) One “Key word”

REMEMBER
One of the key words in the book of Deuteronomy is “remember.”
Moses said to Israel… “Remember”
This is what America needs to do is “remember.” We cannot dwell or live on the past, but we should look back and learn from our past.

D) The Main theme

It is a rehearsal (Going over again) of God’s Law with a call to obedience.
In this book of Deuteronomy, we can see Moses going back to the older generation’s history and telling them that this is the way it is supposed to be. Here is what they experienced and here is what we can learn from that.

I. America

A) America is great today

Not because she is rich, and has wonderful farm lands, and is rich beneath the ground with all her mines, nor is America great today because of her strong armed forces, or great because of the beautiful country sides with mountains and forests and etc.
America is great because of the Word of God.
It is the very Word of God that…
- Our country was founded on
- Held our country together
- Keeps it going
- Keeps it from falling apart

America is great today because of those who have fought Indian, Japanese, German, and terrorist attacks. They fought diseases, dust bowls, droughts, and even the depression. I personally am thankful for them!

B) Few Christians have kept the faith

I believe that one of the reasons that America has stayed as great as it is today is because of the Christians before us that took a stand against gay rights, against abortion, against pornography, against racism, and etc.
But now, there are few Churches today that preach and know the word of God.
Yesterday I went to a wedding and witnessed with my own eyes that a pastor has his people confused because he is confused. Why do I say that… 1) He allowed the devil’s music in his church, 2) He allowed the women to hardly have any clothes on. 3) Upon performing what was called the wedding ceremony he had them partake of the Lord’s Supper for which is supposed to be one of the church ordinances and not part of the wedding.
When Satan is allowed control we have mass confusion. God is not the author of confusion!
Many churches today teach evolution, Scientology, Jesus was born out of wedlock, and that God is a woman. America today is confused!

C) Praise God for the faithful few

Who still preach the King James Bible
Who still believe the Bible’s truth from front to back.
Who don’t change the word of God but they live it.
The only people who will hold this country together are the ones like us that are willing to keep this old book called… The Bible.

D) Our forefathers

The men who wrote our Constitution and By-laws of this country called America when they had their meetings and could not agree on certain things, they had a prayer meeting.
And the only time we have a special prayer now is when we attacked on our soil by terrorists and then the next week it is back to the same old grind.
Then one day a year we pull God down off the dusty shelf of Christianity and have a nationally recognized “Day of Prayer.” Phooey! Everyday should be a day of prayer in our white house, at home and church!
People today say don’t mix religion with politics. Phooey on that too! Most of the politicians that started this country were preachers.

E) Go Vote

Many people complain about whom we have for president and they didn’t even vote.
People today do not look at the moral values of a candidate in any office

II. A Return Back to His Word

A) Put it back into the hearts of Americans

Now let us look into Deuteronomy 6:4… “¶ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5) And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6) And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:”
David’s thought of God’s word…Psalms 119:11 ¶ Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” And again in verse 16) I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.” 89) For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. 101) ¶ I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. 105) ¶ Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
John write of his people… John 17:6 ¶ I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
John 17:14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”

B) How will it start?

With you and I.
Look back in our text book of Deuteronomy 6:1-7 … ¶ Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it:”
2) That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.
3) Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. 4) ¶ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5) And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6) And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
America could be great again if… we as Moses said here teach them to our children at home, on the streets, in the churches, in the schools, in our government so that when we go to sleep it will be in our dreams.

C) Why do we have what we have?

God told Moses and his people that when they get into the land and begin to reap harvests that you have not sown, and begin to drink waters from wells that you have not dug, and begin to enjoy the things of life that are great without you having to work… remember, I (God) gave it to you.
God tells us today… America, when you start digging ore out of the ground that you didn’t put there, and pumping gas and oil out of the ground that you didn’t put there, and enjoy the food and plant life that you planted not, remember I gave it to you and have allowed you to keep it.

D) Get America back to His word

We have got to throw all the perverted versions of the Bible away. I know of a pastor who goes to the goodwill stores and buys all the perverted bibles and then throws them away.
In Psalms 13:2… “2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.”
God puts His word above His own name!
Now turn to II Timothy 4:2and see here where Paul is writing to Timothy and telling him what he needs to do… Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 3) For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4) And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 5) But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”

We need to preach the word.

E) Education today

Education is not the answer to solving the world’s problems.
Getting back to America’s principles, and what it was founded on… The Word of God!
Education is needed I will say that. But not above the Word of God.
Our schools are lacking education.
Our churches are lacking education.
Our homes are lacking education.
Our movies and television programs are lacking education.
Our Government is lacking education.
AMERICA NEEDS A WAKE UP CALL!

III. A Return Back to the Fear of The Lord

A) No fear of God

Let us turn back to our text book of Deuteronomy 10:12… “ ¶ And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,”
America does not fear God anymore.
Many times we don’t fear God because God doesn’t always knock us down when we do so we feel that we have gotten by with it.
Satan is subtle, very sneaky, and tempts us with the little things and later we become totally involved with his world.

B) No reverence to God

Fearing God means to reverence Him.
Webster’s Dictionary says this… reverence; 1. a feeling or attitude of deep respect, love and awe.
TO FEAR GOD … is not being afraid of him as you would an attacker. This fear means reverential trust, trusting God with a hatred for sin.
When we get back to the place where we reverence God, we will also have a hatred for sin.
People today do not hate sin they enjoy it.
The bible warns of these days we are living in, Romans 3:10-18… “ As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11) There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12) They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.13) Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips : 14) Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15) Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16) Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17) And the way of peace have they not known: 18) There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19) ¶ Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”

America needs to get back to their fear of the Lord.

IV. A Return to Walk in His Ways

A) Baptism

Look at Romans 6: 1 ¶ What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2) God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3) Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4) Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5) For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6) Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”
As Paul is preaching to the Romans here… we need to preach to America that when we accept Christ as our Savior then we immediately start our obedience to Him by following Him is scriptural baptism.
Baptism is a picture of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. It is also a picture of our death to sin, and God’s burial of all our past sins, and a resurrection of our new body to walk as Christ would walk… without sin.

B) Following Him

To follow something truly is to do as they do exactly.
America is not following God they are following humanism.
Look at John 8: 12 ¶ Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
To follow Jesus we would be walking in lighted pathways, and not dark hallways.

C) America is following Humanism

Humanism is… human nature, any system or way of thought or action concerned with the interests and ideals of people.

Man thinks they have the solution to all our ailments and problems. Look at all the books written on modern cures for man’s ailments.

Look at all the different bibles written today. Look at all the different programs on T.V. offered to give people help. Look at all the different places a person can go to for help (palm readers, psychologists, and etc.)

E) America is walking in the ways of Philosophy

Darwinism; The thought that man comes from ape.
Scientology;
Horoscopes; They believe in the stars and that they can predict the outcome of your future.

F) America is walking in the ways of Modernism

Modernism is… modern (up to date) usage, practice, or thought; sympathy with modern ideas. 2. a movement attempting to redefine Biblical and Christian dogma and teachings in the light of modern science.
Churches today are full of Modernism.

Changing their bibles.
Changing their beliefs.
Changing of the music. (From conservative to contemporary. And taking “the blood songs” out of the hymnals. Putting bands in the church)
Changing of their meetings. (One service a week is enough to serve God.)

G) His ways are the true changing ways

Do you want a better life than the one you have right now?
Follow Him!
There are families I’ve seen and heard of that have changed from bad to good because of this book they read called the Bible, and this comforter called Jesus Christ, and it was not based on humanism, philosophy, or modernism!

V. A Return to a Sincere Love for God

A) If we truly love God…

If we truly love God as we say we do then we will do as it says in John 14:15… “ ¶ If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
We are supposed to be busy keeping His commandments!
Americans all over the U.S. today will stand sing patriotic songs in honor of their country. Then next week they will go out and do something unlawful.
Christians today will stand and sing “Oh how I Love Jesus” then later this week live like the devil!
America, what does God require of thee? To Love Him. For if we love Him we will keep His Commandments.

B) What is true Love?

John 3:16… “ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17) For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
True love is when you will sacrifice something of yours to help the one you love. This does not mean just to sacrifice one time. This means constantly.
True love is doing something for the one you love.
True love is giving all the time to the one you love.
True love wanting to talk to the one you love all the time.
True love is to want to be with the one you love all the time.
True love is consulting with the one you love. (Talk things over, discuss)

VI. A Return to Service for God

A) Entertainment

Americans today feel they need to be entertained.
When they want to go watch fireworks…They want some entertainment.
They go to school… they want entertainment.
They go to work… they want entertainment.
They watch T.V… they want entertainment.
They come to Church… they want entertainment.
WE SHOULD COME TO CHURCH BECAUSE … “WE LOVE GOD, AND WISH TO SERVE HIM.”
Joshua 24:15 ¶ And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

B) Many Americans today serve self

What about me? All we ask is… “What about my wants, what about my life, what about the y things I like….”
We are too busy wanting to fulfill our needs and desires that we forget about what God wants.
We want food now… we can get it!
We want sex now… we can get it!
We want new houses now… we can get it!
We want a church with low requirements… we can get it!
When was the last time you prayed for America?